Traveling from Russia to defend his title, Roman Penkovskiy won the 2017 IronMind Rolling Thunder World Championships at the Los Angeles FitExpo yesterday.

Cheered on by a large crowd of enthusiastic live spectators, the competition was also viewed live on Facebook, where the numbers brushed up against the 500,000 mark.

Second place went to Odd Haugen, (USA) who pioneered this prestigious grip strength competition with IronMind in 2000, and strongman Josh Thigpen (USA), who has competed at the World’s Strongest Man contest, took third place—both making 110 kg.